There was an air of excitement about Mr Bassett as he arrived at the Daily Express offices in London during a visit to the UK and Europe to gather international support for a 20-year mission.

He was clutching a mock-up Daily Express front page he created with the words “We Are Not Alone” over the face of an alien as the top story.

He said: “This will be a reality this year and across the front pages of newspapers across the world. The most significant news story that has ever been broken.”

Mr Bassett is convinced his two decades of work are about to bear fruit.

So why 2016?

A media storm has slowly been brewing on both sides of the Atlantic.

The presidential hopeful pledged to send a task force into the mysterious Area 51 military base in Nevada, where UFO conspiracists believe evidence of alien technology is hidden away, should she win office.

Her campaign manager John Podesta also spoke publicly about their bid to release top-secret UFO files.

But, in the background before this Camp Clinton had been making other moves.

Twenty-two months after Bill Clinton left office Mr Podesta called for the release of all UFO files to the public on October 22, 2002 at the National Press Club and did the same there a year later.

In 2010 Mr Podesta restated his desire for disclosure in a foreword to the book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record by Leslie Kean.

In February 2015 Mr Podesta tweeted: “My biggest failure of 2014: Once again not securing the “disclosure of the UFO files.”

On September 29 2015 Mr Podesta tweeted about a reporter’s interview with Mrs Clinton, saying: “Ask her about aliens next time! #thetruthisoutthere.”